


Nightmare Before the Carnival

by Ingonyama



Series: Dungeons and Dragons: Return to the Realm [2]
Category: Dungeons and Dragons (Cartoon)
Genre: Domesticity, Gen, Nightmares, Psychic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-10
Updated: 2015-12-10
Packaged: 2018-05-06 01:04:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5397110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ingonyama/pseuds/Ingonyama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five years after the events of "Requiem," the Girl Who Dreamed Tomorrow is visited by a nightmare.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nightmare Before the Carnival

Terri pulled her purple cloak tighter around her, as if to ward off a chill, even though it was swelteringly hot. The clearing was choked with ash and smoke, trees and bushes burning all around them, the sky pitch black, marred with roiling clouds of blood-red smoke.

 

The dragon was dead. It had fought with all its might, but in the end even the five-headed creature, the most powerful being in the Realms, was no match for their adversary. Beside the dragon lay a figure in blue-and-silver armor, someone she knew she should have recognized, but couldn't place, and the bodies of others, so many others, whom she knew she didn't know, but her heart treatened to crack with grief at the sight.

 

Past the dragon, past the fallen army, rose a towering pillar of fire, as tall as a mountain. Its flames belched enough black smoke from the pillar's crown to make a thundercloud look puny, blotting out sun and sky and hope. Something loomed within the flame, something so huge and horrible Terri hoped she never got a good look at it. All she saw were its eyes, inhuman, burning, and pitiless, consumed by some madness that transcended anything she knew.

 

Standing in front of her, between her and the dragon's corpse, a young man in green robes started waving his hand over a hat. She looked up, expected to see the face of an old friend, but was greeted instead by a stranger, not much older than herself, though his eyes were creased with laughter lines.   
  


He wasn't laughing now. His face was contorted in concentration, words pouring from his mouth that she didn't understand as his hat started to glow. However, a blast of energy struck the hat, and the spell that was meant for the fire-creature rebounded, enveloping the magician instead. He didn't even have time to scream before he was trapped in a mirror-like sheet of silver glass, which then cracked and shattered into tiny pieces, still holding the image of his frozen, shocked face.

 

Two more people she didn't know...a man wielding the shield of the Cavalier, and a woman with a trident...charged forward, attacking the pillar of flame, and the horror within it, head-on. Its horrible, burning eyes looked down at them, so small compared to its gigantic size...and they too were gone, burnt up as swiftly and horribly as if they'd been made of paper.

  
  
A golden light flashed next to her, and she looked up to see a man in green and brown leather draw his energy bow. But her heart both leapt and sank to see that instead of the Ranger she knew, this one wore the face of her best friend.  
  


 

"Remember this sight, Terri!" came a tiny voice next to her. She looked down to see an ancient, tiny figure, lying on his back where he had been knocked to the ground. His resplendent red robes were tattered and frayed, and a sickening black patch smoked on his chest. He coughed and looked at her weakly. "The future is not set in stone, but you must act...act to change it...Without human will to alter its course, destiny will consume everything...you hold dear."

  
  
As if to prove his point, a scream beside her made Terri turn in startlement and terror. The Ranger was gone, a black wisp of smoke rising from the blackened grass upon which he had stood. She felt a scream building in her throat as tears gathered in her eyes. She turned back to say something, scream something at the old man, but his eyes merely stared blankly at her, unseeing. She knew they would never see anything again.

  
  
Now she was alone, surrounded by the corpses or ashes of her friends and allies while facing this faceless, unnamable evil. Its inhuman eyes fixed on her, though they shouldn’t have been able to, and then they flashed, a horrific, chaotic swirl of color and darkness, engulfing her...

  
  
And she knew no more.  
  


 

~*~

 

*DING-DONG*

  
“Mmmnnhh…Mom? Someone’s at the door…”

  
No answer came from his parents' bed across the hall. Muzzily, Bobby sat up and rubbed his eyes, blinking the sleep from them as best he could before stumbling out of bed.

  
  
_Oh, right,_ he thought, _They said they had to work early...that's why Sheila an' me are going to the carnival by ourselves._

  
  
Throwing on the nearest clean T-shirt he could find, Bobby stumbled down the stairs as the doorbell chimed again, more insistently this time, and pulled the door open. The sight that greeted him on the other side was enough to wake him the rest of the way up.

  
  
Terri was dressed in her favorite blue jeans and t-shirt, her black hair done up into a clean, neat ponytail. She'd have looked the same as she always did, except for the redness of her eyes, the terrified expression on her face.

  
  
"Terri?" Bobby blinked. "We're not leaving for the carnival till ten. How come you're here so...?"

  
  
He never got the chance to finish his sentence, as Terri threw her arms around him with a wail. "Oh, Bobby, thank goodness you're all right! I had...I had...the most **horrible** dream!" And she buried her face in his shoulder and sobbed.

  
  
All Bobby could do was put his arms around her shoulders and hold her as she cried. "It's...it's OK..." he stammered out, patting her back awkwardly. "It was just a dream...whatever it was." _Sheila, **please** get downstairs! I could use your help like anything right now!_

  
  
After what felt to Bobby like the longest minute in history, Terri's sobs slowed to sniffles, and then finally stopped altogether. "I--I'm sorry, Bobby," she stammered, brushing the tears away from her cheek. "I don't...I don't know what came over me."

  
  
Bobby had no idea how to respond to that. "Well, since you're here anyway..." he started, hesitantly, and gestured for her to come in. "I'll make breakfast. You still like pancakes, right?"

  
  
"Sure," She cracked the faintest hint of a smile. "always have."

  
  
"Great!" he said. _Great_ , he thought. _Now I gotta remember how Dad does it._  
  
~*~  
  
 _At least breakfast wasn't a_ total _failure,_ Bobby thought to himself as he cleaned up the dishes. After his disastrous first attempt had brought Sheila downstairs in a panic at the smell of smoke, she had taken over for him and made a fresh batch that, while not as good as the ones their dad made, were nonetheless a lot more edible than his. The whole time they ate, Bobby didn't press Terri about her dream.

  
  
Instead, he tried to distract her by asking about a dozen different things. After their harrowing ordeal in the Realm, the two had found each other in elementary school and stayed fast friends through middle school. However, now that they went to different high schools, life kept getting in the way, so whenever they _did_ meet, there was a lot of catching up to do.

  
Today was no different. Terri talked about the school she was going to, the friends she'd made, the few subjects she liked and the many she didn't (Bobby commisserated with her about what a pain algebra was).

  
  
She explained how she was starting to take art classes, showing Bobby a picture she'd sketched of him, his sister, and their friends in the Realm, where Terri had first met him. "You even drew Dungeon Master," he said with a chuckle. Bobby found he missed the strange old man who spoke in riddles, even five years after they'd said goodbye.

  
  
"It's...it's very nice," Sheila said hesitantly, her eyes fixed on the picture as if it were about to bite. Bobby didn't say anything at that; he knew his sister's gaze was drawn to only one figure - the handsome blond teenager in green and brown leather armor, with an unstrung bow strapped to his back, but no quiver or arrows.

  
  
Bobby put a hand on Sheila's arm. "Hey...I miss him too." She gave him a brief, sad smile, and then wiped her face. "I have to get ready to go," she said abruptly. "Since I cooked, it's only fair you do the dishes, little brother."

  
  
Terri immediately got to her feet. "I'll help!" Though Bobby wanted to protest -- she was a guest, she didn't have to do chores -- Terri wouldn't hear it, and if he were honest with himself, he was as bad at dishes as he was at cooking, even with their new dishwasher. Terri helping out was the best way to make sure nothing broke.

  
  
_Cooking, chores, being there for people..I'm just all around awful at everything,_ he thought glumly. He knew Terri would disagree vehemently if she heard him say this out loud, though.

  
  
~*~

  
Once the dishes were rinsed and the dishwasher started (after Terri had scooped out about half of the detergent Bobby had planned to use), they still had an hour or two to kill before they had to start getting ready. A couple of years ago, this would have meant Saturday morning cartoons for Bobby and Sheila. Now, Bobby had discovered the joy of video games, and was playing his favorite -- the one where he got to be a robot with an arm cannon -- while Terri watched and "navigated" with the strategy guide Bobby had gotten for Christmas last year.

  
  
"So," he said, dodging a volley of missiles from one of the craftier enemies, "you ready to tell me about the dream yet?"

  
  
Terri went quiet for a moment, as Bobby found himself falling into a bottomless pit for the fifteenth time.  Then, haltingly, she spoke.

  
  
"It...it felt real, like when I had dreams over in the other place...the ones that always came true." She looked at him with worry in her eyes. "It was..." Her voice froze. _Dead Bobby, dead friends, dead strangers..._ "You...we..." _and the fire, oh God the fire, coming closer eyes no NO **NO** don't think about it Terri it wasn't real, you're going to be **fine**!_

  
  
She shook her head, her eyes wet with tears and jaw clenched in frustration. Bobby reached out and patted her shoulder. "It's not important," he said, as soothingly as he could. "It was just a bad dream -- you haven't had any future dreams since we got back, right? So it was just a nightmare, probably because of what happened to me and the others at the carnival way back when." He tried to smile encouragingly. "Listen...we don't have to go if you don't want to. It might be better if we just hung out here, or went to the arcades or something." She smiled in return...

  
  
...Then something on-screen caught her attention.  "Bobby, your game!" she cried out, just as his character touched something he shouldn't have and exploded into a shower of light. He looked at the screen, groaned in disgust, and switched the TV off. "Forget it," he said. "You're more important right now." He put the controller down and grinned, and she managed to regain a weak smile.

  
  
"I...I'll be okay, Bobby," she said. "I promise. Besides, you've been planning this for weeks; everyone's going to be there."

  
  
"Almost everyone," she heard Sheila murmur softly, and a pang of guilt went through her.

  
  
"All you've talked about all month is how much you wanted to see them again," Terri went on. "Just because I had a nightmare doesn't mean we should cancel." She wiped at her eyes, trying to pull herself back together, to make him believe she meant it. She _did_ mean it...she was sure of it.

  
  
Bobby watched her carefully, and nodded slowly. "OK, Terri. But the minute you start feelin' uncomfortable...either of you," he looked over to Sheila in turn, "we're comin' home. The others'll understand."

  
  
Terri smiled, exchanged looks with Bobby's sister, and nodded. "It's a deal." Then, impulsively, she hugged him. "Ahhh, c'mon!" he laughed, pushing at her. "We've gotta get ready, or we're gonna be late!"  
  



End file.
